When Politics Becomes Lethal

 

…we must not underestimate the disturbing scenarios
that threaten our future,
or the powerful new instruments
that the “culture of death”
has at its disposal.
—POPE BENEDICT XVI, Caritas in Veritate, n. 75

I have tried to avoid entering the realm of politics. But a recent headline on Drudge Report caught my attention. It is so over-the-top that I am compelled to comment:Continue reading

The Coming Counterfeit

The Mask, by Michael D. O’Brien

 

First published, April, 8th 2010.

 

THE warning in my heart continues to grow about a coming deception, which may in fact be the one described in 2 Thess 2:11-13. What follows after the so-called “illumination” or “warning” is not only a brief but powerful period of evangelization, but a dark counter-evangelization that will, in many ways, be just as convincing. Part of the preparation for that deception is knowing beforehand that it is coming:

Indeed, the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets… I have said all this to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you of them. (Amos 3:7; John 16:1-4)

Satan not only knows what is coming, but has been planning for it for a long time. It is exposed in the language being used…Continue reading

The Itty Bitty Path

The gate is narrow
and the way is hard
that leads to life,
and those who find it are few.

(Matt 7:14)

 

It seems to me that this path has become narrower, rockier, and more treacherous than ever before. Now, the teardrops and sweat of the saints begin to emerge beneath one’s feet; the true test of one’s faith becomes a steeper incline; the bloody footprints of the martyrs, still damp with their sacrifice, glisten in the fading twilight of our times. For the Christian today, it is a path that either fills one with terror…. or calls one deeper. As such, the path is less trampled, evidenced by fewer and fewer souls willing to take this journey that, ultimately, follows in the footsteps of our Master.
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This is the Trial

By your perseverance, you will secure your lives.
(Luke 21:19)

 

A letter from a reader…

Just watched your video with Daniel O’Connor.  Why is God delaying His mercy and justice?!  We live in times more evil than before the great flood and in Sodom and Gomorrah.  The great Warning would seem to “shake” the world and result in major conversions.  Why do we continue to live in so much evil and darkness in this world, where believers can barely stand any more?!  God is AWOL [“away without leave”] and satan is slaughtering believers every day, and the assault does not end… I have lost hope in His plan.

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The Popes and the Dawning Era

 

The LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said:
Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning
and shown the dawn its place
for taking hold of the ends of the earth,
till the wicked are shaken from its surface?”
(Job 38: 1, 12-13)

We thank you because your Son is to come again in majesty to
judge those who have refused to repent and acknowledge you;
while to all who have acknowledged you,
worshiped you, and served you in penitence, He will
say: Come, you blessed of my Father, take possession
of the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning
of the world.
—St. Francis of Assisi,The Prayers of Saint Francis,
Alan Name, Tr. © 1988, New City Press

 

THERE can be no doubt that the pontiffs of the last century have been exercising their prophetic office so as to awaken believers to the drama unfolding in our day (see Why Aren’t the Popes Shouting?). It is a decisive battle between the culture of life and the culture of death… the woman clothed with the sun—in labor to give birth to a new era—versus the dragon who seeks to destroy it, if not attempt to establish his own kingdom and “new age” (see Rev 12:1-4; 13:2). But while we know Satan will fail, Christ will not. The great Marian saint, Louis de Montfort, frames it well:

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Dear Holy Father… He is Coming!

 

TO His Holiness, Pope Francis:

 

Dear Holy Father,

Throughout the pontificate of your predecessor, St. John Paul II, he continually invoked us, the youth of the Church, to become “morning watchmen at the dawn of the new millennium.” [1]POPE JOHN PAUL II, Novo Millennio Inuente, n.9; (cf. Is 21:11-12)

…watchmen who proclaim to the world a new dawn of hope, brotherhood and peace. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Address to the Guanelli Youth Movement, April 20th, 2002, www.vatican.va

From Ukraine to Madrid, Peru to Canada, he beckoned us to become “protagonists of the new times” [2]POPE JOHN PAUL II, Welcome Ceremony, International Airport of Madrid-Baraja, May 3rd, 2003; www.fjp2.com that lay directly ahead of the Church and the world:

Dear young people, it is up to you to be the watchmen of the morning who announce the coming of the sun who is the Risen Christ! —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Message of the Holy Father to the Youth of the World, XVII World Youth Day, n. 3; (cf. Is 21:11-12)

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Footnotes

Footnotes
1 POPE JOHN PAUL II, Novo Millennio Inuente, n.9; (cf. Is 21:11-12)
2 POPE JOHN PAUL II, Welcome Ceremony, International Airport of Madrid-Baraja, May 3rd, 2003; www.fjp2.com